Cowboys & Aliens: Review

So it's been about four days since I've seen Jon Favreau's new film "Cowboys & Aliens". I must say that I wasn't all sold on this film. Nothing in the trailers blew my mind, but it did have Indiana Jones and James Bond together again; so that alone was worth the price of admission.

I want to keep this as spoiler free as possible; so I won't go into the story much, but I will say don't go into the movie expecting anything groundbreaking. It's a summer popcorn flick, and it's a pretty good one at that. There are however, some issues I have with the film.

One of these issues is that the aliens never really feel menacing enough, and to be frank I think I would've enjoyed it even more with out the aliens. Had it have been about Daniel Craig trying to figure out who he is with a little sci-fi on his arm-all while trying to find Harrison Ford's gold, and dealing with neighboring Indians would've been prefect. The movie never really reaches the level of intensity of the first attack. Everything after that just kind of falls flat. There is also a scene involving a character about half-way through the film that ALMOST destroyed the movie for me. I absolutely hated it, but I was able to get past it and enjoy the movie.

Now after what was just typed it may seem as though I didn't like the film as I previously stated, but despite what I've typed beforehand I really did have fun with this. The best thing about the movie has to be the acting. Harrison Ford is pretty great as the old guy who realizes he's not the badass he once was, and that he might need help *spoiler alert* to get the town citizens back. You can really see how humbled he is beneath this alien power he doesn't understand. He's a joy to watch.

Daniel Craig is a complete badass in this movie. He radiates this "don't fuck with me" vibe that's just awesome. I think he takes out like three guys with his fists on two or three different occasions. Just watching him in this makes me so excited for the new Bond movie.

Everyone else in this movie are great as well. Paul Dano is spot on with his spoiled rich kid portyal and Sam Rockwell is well...Sam Rockwell, which is never a bad thing. The only person I didn't really like was Olivia Wilde (she did look super sexy).

In short, "Cowboys & Aliens" isn't without it's flaws, but if you're willing to turn your brain off then you're in for a good time time. I give it an "you're in for a good time with no extra stimulants required".